Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 169 "The Eighth Year of Jianchu, the Yishui River" (3K)

When Fang Yan heard that Le Miao had a way to open the box, he knew he had found the right person.

At this moment, he was also quite curious. How should he open the box that he had been trying to open for a long time but failed?

"So, how should it be opened?" Fang Yan asked Le Miao.

Le Miao said:

"To open this box, you need some special tools."

"What special tool?" Fangyan's curiosity was piqued.

Le Miao held the middle of the box and rotated it while speaking to Fang Yan:

"So... a tool that can create centrifugal force."

Dialect suddenly:

"You mean, there's a mechanism inside that requires centrifugal force to open?"

Le Miao nodded and said:
"Well, the structure of this box is somewhat like a Luban box that can only be opened by the centrifugal force generated by rotation."

"But the centrifugal force required to move the box must be very large. Just turning it by hand will not move the latch inside."

"In ancient times, you would need a special tool to create such a large centrifugal force, but now it is much simpler."

Fangyan now understood the meaning.

He had seen similar boxes in his previous life. If you placed them on the table and turned them gently, the latch inside would be thrown from the middle to both ends by centrifugal force, thus opening the box.

Fang Yan nodded and said to Le Miao:

"I see. You mean something like an electric fan, a wheel, or a lathe chuck that can rotate at high speed."

Le Miao stopped what he was doing and said:

"Yes, that's what you understand."

Fang Yan looked around, thought for a moment, and remembered that there was an electric fan next to his examination table, so he said:

"An electric fan should be fine. Just secure it with something."

Le Miao nodded, basically agreeing with his plan.

Next, Fangyan removed the protective cover of the electric fan that he had been using, and then tied the wooden box to it.

In order to prevent it from being thrown away, he specially tied it in a few more places and fixed it in the middle of the electric fan.

But even after doing this, Fangyan still felt a little uneasy. After all, the dynamic balance was definitely not carefully adjusted when turning like this, and it might be thrown out by the centrifugal force.

This box made of iron birch is basically the same as steel. It would not be fun if it hit someone.

So Fangyan moved the electric fan to the backyard of the house, asked others not to watch, and then he plugged in the fan by himself.

"Buzzing..."

These days, when the iron blades of an electric fan start up, they always make this somewhat overwhelming sound.

Fangyan saw the electric fan slowly turn around and start to speed up.

Although it is only the lowest gear, it still turns very fast.

A black shadow suddenly appeared on the iron birch box tied to it.

With a "click", Fang Yan saw the afterimage suddenly twisted, he quickly pulled out the plug, and with a "clang" the iron birch box fell directly to the ground.

Many of the strips of cloth tied on it had been broken.

There was only one left hanging there.

That's added after the dialect.

The bluestone slab on the ground even had a white mark left by the iron birch box.

If it wasn't tied up, it would have flown away by now.

Fangyan hurried over and picked up the wooden box.

He pushed, but found it didn't move.

"How is it?" Le Miao pushed the door open when he heard the noise inside.

She pushed everyone else to the front.

Fangyan said speechlessly:
"It's probably because of insufficient time, insufficient force, or perhaps the mechanism is outdated. In any case, the mechanism inside should not have swung."

Le Miao stretched out his hand:
"Let me try."

When Fang Yan heard this, he handed it directly to Le Miao.

Le Miao put it on the ground, then found a place with his hands and broke it with force.

"Click!" The box made a crisp sound.

"It's open!" said Le Miao.

Fang Yan was startled. He looked carefully and found that the box in Le Miao's hand was opened with a very thin crack.

A gap appeared where there was a tight fit before.

"I'll do it!" When Fang Yan saw that Le Miao didn't have the strength to pry them apart, he immediately offered to do it himself.

Le Miao said:

"Put it flat on the ground so that you can pry it apart with force."

Fangyan nodded to show that he understood, then took over and started to use the same method that Le Miao had used before.

Maybe it was because it had been too long. Even though Fangyan had practiced martial arts and had extraordinary strength, he still had a hard time breaking it.

Watching the crack expanding little by little, Le Miao and Fang Yan widened their eyes, wondering if there was a dagger inside as Le Miao said.

With a "click", Fangyan finally opened the box.

The next second, a bright golden color appeared in front of the two people.

"It's gold!" Fang Yan was stunned.

Then after he saw it clearly, he immediately changed his words:

"Hey, that's not right!"

As he said this, he pulled out the golden color from the box.

It turned out to be a dagger made of gold.

No wonder it was so heavy when I first got it. Le Miao came over and looked at the golden dagger in Fang Yan's hand, his eyes widened in surprise.

She lamented:

"I'm afraid only Duke Zhongguo Shi Heng could afford such a short sword."

Fangyan shook his head and said:

"It would be worth a lot of money just by weight in gold."

Le Miao said:

"This is an antique, at least several hundred years old, and it's not just gold."

"Its existence alone is proof of Shi Heng's status and wealth at that time. It is impossible for ordinary people to use such a large golden sword to protect their house."

Fangyan looked at the golden dagger, which was shining brightly.

One cannot help but sigh that gold is indeed a precious metal with excellent resistance to discoloration and chemical corrosion.

The patterns on it look like they were just carved.

Fang Yan saw some words under the hilt, but he didn't recognize them. He pointed at Le Miao and said:
"Look, there are words here. It should be the name of this sword."

"Why is it seal script?" Le Miao was stunned.

Fangyan also felt something was wrong after hearing this and asked:

"The Ming Dynasty used seal script?"

Le Miao shook her head, and then began to carefully identify the seal characters. She slowly read:
"In the eighth year of Jianchu...Zhenyishui."

"Such a long name?" Fangyan asked.

Le Miao shook his head, looked the sword up and down, and then said:

"No, that's not the name, and this sword model doesn't seem to be from the Ming Dynasty."

Fangyan looked at the words above and asked:
"Zhen Yishui? Yishui seems to be in Luoyang, Henan?"

Le Miao nodded:
"Well, the Yishui River is a tributary of the Luo River and has a very important cultural position in history."

Fangyan thought about it, and then said:
"Li Shangyin's: The Yi River splashes and flows in opposite directions, few people are visiting the red railings and painted pavilions... Li Bai's: I send my sorrow to the Yi River, how can its overflowing water be exhausted... Bai Juyi's: I dismount and stroll at the head of the Yi River, the cool breeze and clear scenery are better than a spring outing..."

Le Miao looked at Fang Yan with a surprised expression:

"You know a lot, don't you?!"

Fangyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said to her:
"I just don't know much about antiques, but it's not like I don't know geography or ancient poetry..."

Le Miao also laughed. Just now, she subconsciously treated Fangyan as a white-collar who knew nothing.

Fang Yan shook the sword in his hand, brought the topic back to the topic, and asked Le Miao:

"But speaking of it, what does this "Zhen Yi Shui" mean in the eighth year of Jianchu?"

Le Miao restrained her smile, tapped her forehead with her fingers, and muttered:
"In ancient China, it was a common practice to use swords as sacrifices or talismans."

"Zhen should mean suppression, the eighth year of Jianchu... let me think about it."

"The seal script should be from the Qin and Han dynasties, so this Jianchu..."

After pondering for about ten seconds, she suddenly said excitedly:

"I remembered!"

"The eighth year of Jianchu was the reign title of Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xun. Zhang Heng was born in the third year of Jianchu."

The dialect suddenly dawned on him... He had heard of Zhang Heng before, from his textbook when he was a child in his previous life, the one about the seismometer.

At this time, Le Miao pointed at the sword in Fang Yan's hand and said:
"This sword must have a history. Wait, I'll go find the book right away."

"..." Fang Yan watched Le Miao run out in a flash, seeming even more excited than him.

He looked at the golden dagger in his hand.

I found the workmanship to be really exquisite.

At this time, Fang Yan's eyes fell on the box again.

Inside the box were engraved three words in regular script: "Zhenshi Zhai".

Le Miao's judgment just now was correct. This box must have been made by Shi Heng.

Fangyan picked up the box and intended to check its structure.

Then suddenly I found that there seemed to be something else in the box.

A piece of jade.

Inside the box, where the tip of the sword was pointed, it was embedded in a groove.

Fangyan exerted force and pulled it out.

A piece of emerald green jade was exquisitely carved into a monster with antlers.

It looks like a big-mouthed monster with dense fish scales all over its body.

It looks vivid, yet cute.

This should be Chiwen.

The sword is placed in the box in order to nail it to the house.

Fangyan looked around at the jade, and apart from the exquisite carvings, he didn't see any special words.

"Found it, found it!" After a while, Le Miao came back and ran back with two books.

She came to Fangyan, opened one of the books, and said:

"Look, in the Records of Ancient and Modern Swords by Tao Hongjing of the Southern Dynasties, it is recorded that Emperor Zhang was in office for thirteen years. In the eighth year of Jianchu, he cast a golden sword and ordered it to be thrown into the Yi River to ward off monsters that would hit people's knees."

Then he opened another one:
"In the Water Classic by Guo Pu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it is said: 'There is a creature in the Yi River, as big as a human knee, with claws on its head. Whenever people bathe in it, they will sink into it and never come out again.' The sword recorded above should be the sword used to suppress this monster."

"In simple translation, it means that in the eighth year of Jian'an, a monster appeared in the Yi River. It looked like a human knee and had claws on its head. Whenever someone went to bathe in the Yi River, they would immediately sink to the bottom and disappear. So Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xun, had a golden sword forged and thrown into the Yi River. Then the monster was suppressed and people would be fine when they went to bathe in the Yi River."

"Shi Heng used this sword to protect his house, which is indeed in line with the allusion of the Ten Thousand Blade Sword."

When Fang Yan heard what Le Miao said, he was a little surprised and picked up the sword and asked:
"So, this should be an antique from the eighth year of Jianchu in the Eastern Han Dynasty? Or is it a replica made by Shi Heng to protect his house?"

PS: The 6000-word basic chapter has been updated, and there will be additional chapters later.

(End of this chapter)